Drunk in this world

Recently I read the following from the Tricycle Magazine

So long as the mind feels pleasure and pain, it’s drunk. Even while practicing the dhamma, it’s drunk, you know. People can get drunk eating rice—there’s no need to drink alcohol. If you eat a lot of rice, you can get drunk—drunk on rice. The same with the dhamma: Don’t get drunk on it. When people are drunk on the dhamma, they don’t stop. They keep on talking. If they see anybody coming, they want to grab him by the arm and give him a sermon on the dhamma. That’s a sign that they’re drunk on dhamma. They go after everybody: “I want to teach that person; I want to do this person a favor by teaching him the dhamma”—and so they do a favor to the entire country by teaching the dhamma. That’s a sign of drunkenness. Being drunk on the dhamma is no different from being drunk on alcohol. They’re really similar. Don’t go there. You have to look carefully, again and again, for sometimes something is dhamma, but it’s drunk. That’s not right.
From Still, Flowing Water, by Venerable Ajahn Chah, trans. Thanissaro Bhikkhu © 2013. Reprinted with permission.

And I have been reflecting on it for the past two days. The more I reflect, the more I feel that this phrase is so true! As our minds get "taken over", drawn totally into the story of things, it becomes like when one is drunk. One just simply follows without discernment. One becomes unclear of what is happening and one's heart just goes off tangent. As such, the training is to be constantly mindful. When mindfulness is strong, and one already is educated on Right View, then it is difficult for 'distractions'/defilements to grow. It's like it loses fuel to burn, no oxygen to burn and it dies of natural death.

However, in a society like Singapore, with too many things to do and too little time, our minds are pulled in all directions and it is tough to practice in this manner. However, if we keep the thought of practicing in our minds, whenever there is an opportunity, likw when we are walking from place to place and especially if we are alone, we will clarify our minds, meaning to make it clear and see things clearly. Slowly, this will grow and then we will be able to do it better and better and slowly it will start to break into other parts of our lives. I think this is how we can practice in Singapore....without going anywhere else.So, I hope everyone can always keep the heart to practice at the back of their head and clarify their minds :) Then the world will then be a better place with less 'drunkards' :)

Pure Compassion

Through the great Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche's life, I learnt and see the teaching of Great Compassion. His whole life was just this Great Compassion. Truly a great master, a role model to learn from and follow. To step out of our own small ideas, own small selves, and step right into Great Compassion. To me, that is the teaching of the great Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche. In His Great Compassion, there is nothing outside of it.

With utmost love, respect and metta _(|)_

All things

All things are in and of themselves all things.

Try Again Every New Day

Every new day is a precious opportunity for us to try again; to correct the wrongs we did in the past, to do the good we failed to do before. To improve and better ourselves, to help the world and all sentient beings!

This second chance is hard to come by and becomes a chance only when the chance is presented to us and we see it as such! Many times, we never get the chance to right the wrongs we did or improve on the things we wanted to. On the contrary, we might even see it as a chore given to us by someone who wants to punish us! But why see it in that way? Is it helpful? One breeds enmity, one breeds goodness and helps ourselves :)

So when such an opportunity comes by, try again! Try again with courage, sincerity and effort!

Every new day, try again!

In gassho from Shinnyo-en :)

Living in the same way

Living your life in the same way for maybe a large part of your life, towards the end of your life, would you regret doing same thing for the many years? Would you yearn for more, that you have tasted the other experience? Or would you regret thinking that you could have lived in another way which is more beneficial? Would you think that you have wasted this life? Or wasted those many years? The thought of having a next life to continue 'living' does not help anymore because you are simply not you anymore. So what would you do? How would you make your decisions, and how well are you going to stand by it?

Would you be satisfied with your life? That is the greatest question. Are you satisfied?

If not, what could we do?

A question to consider

Is everything not going well for me? Or am I not going well with everything? Hmmmm....

Perfect robots? Reflections on iRobot

Even robots with perfect codes will go haywire. That is how this world is! Dissatisfactory, imperfect and these decays or changes can happen anytime! So no matter how perfect your programming or engineering is, you cannot create a perfect robot. Because perfect is impossible in this world! This world is marked with dukkha!

However, if you create a council of robots to check on each other in case others go awry, the possibility something will go wrong will drop, but never go away!! There will always be a chance. And a higher chance humans will go wrong. So what do we choose?

Living this life

To think that you know more, so you should be more important, or treated so, you are making a big mistake! If u refuse to bow to someone who has only knowledge and no insight, it goes to show that your insight is really not enough!! One must be constantly reminded of this! After all, where did I come from, to be so important that 'I' can't lose or my body parts can't touch the ground. Know that 'i' am not so different from the other and harmony is important. Act wisely and only when needed. Do the right thing, say the right thing, to the right person, at the right time. It is a life long learning. I have much to learn, as always :)

Buddhism

Well, to me, the practice of Buddhism is to realise ourselves. To realise that we are here, not there; we are this, not that. This is who we are, this is what we are. We are only just like this, and these are what we can and should do.

Then we realise that things are also just like this and not like that. Then the only thing left to do is to constantly bring ourselves back to how we and things are and do what we should do.

Honestly speaking....

Honestly speaking, after all these years of studying Buddhism, i realise that i seriously do not know what buddhism is about! I do not know what the Buddha was talking about, what the ancient teachers were talking about, or what the modern teachers are talking about. I do not know what they are refering to or what meditation or mindfulness is all about. I really have no idea! And don't see what they mean. In the end, i only know what i know. If someone asks me about buddhism, i usually do not know what to say, i only know what i know, what do i know about buddhism? However, to resolve the situation, i just answer with the ancient teachers' answer.

Ultimately, what can i do? One can only live my life based on what one knows. If i ask myself if my understanding is the same as the buddha's or ancients? How do i know really; how can one know?? One can only live one's life based on what one knows. There is no other way. No way to live your life based on something you don't know!

Then i ask myself if i am chasing their tail to understand what they know? I can only say yes. They know something that i don't which helps them. I am chasing that in hope that it can help me too! I want to know the secret that they know! What do i know? Just trying to chase their tail.

The self meets the self

" there is a study of the river seeing the river. “The river practices and verifies the river; hence, there is a study of the river speaking river. We must bring to realization the path on which the self encounters the self.” We must move back and forth along, and spring off from, the vital path on which the other studies and fully comprehends the other.”"

The self sees the self and knows the self. But that's the only thing he can know because all other things are all other things and all the self is all the self. There is no way that we can know all about the other things but we can know ourselves for ourselves are here and not there. But we must see ourselves and thereby verify ourselves. If we do not see ourselves, then there is no way to verify ourselves. The river is only verified by the river and the self only verified by the self. There is no other way..

FAIL!!!

You must allow yourself to fail. If can't fail, can't face your own failure, u can't face the failure of anyone else..

Koans

Koans are very interesting. Working on it, you cut off all things. After having worked through it, the thing is cut off. So it is beneficial to be both working with it and solving it.

Mindfulness

Trying to put more mindfulness intoy life. Finally have some idea on what it really is. Realise that it is not something natural but a constant effort thing. I will try hard.

To listen

I was reading a book called Zen of Business Administration, how zen practice can transform your work and your life.

It is interesting how the author places emphasis on mindfulness not only of oneself, but of others and tells us tgat this will lead us to see and understand our customers or colleagues more deeply. At least that is how i understand it.

Understanding and giving

By watching 2 people I learnt a lesson. One day, Tom and Jerry had a quarel. Tom says he gave Jerry all his cheese and the thing that got him most pissed off is that Jerry is un-appreciative. However, if you ask Jerry, Jerry would complain that Tom is a stingy and selfish fool who keeps hoarding the cheese. So the question is who is right?

The answer is both are right. Why? Let's see.

The true story is that when Jerry asked Tom to give him his cheese, he had a difficult time asking from him. He had to use all sorts of ways to beg and pray and plead with Tom and Tom would not budge an inch. As such, Jerry used a lot of effort and a lot of hardwork to get the cheese from Tom. Until finally, Tom gave Jerry the cheese. After getting the cheese, Jerry once left it unguarded and it was stolen by Mike. Tom thus got very sad and kept nagging at Jerry every other day for the loss of the cheese. And in between this nagging, kept asking Jerry to pay him back the cheese. In the end, Jerry couldn't stand Tom and left him. Tom was left wondering why Jerry left him.

Analysing from Tom's perspective: Tom did give the cheese to Jerry. It is a fact, a truth. Tom was technically right to say that he gave Jerry the cheese. And so Tom does not understand why Jerry says that he is selfish and stingy. Losing the cheese to the careless actions of Jerry, naturally Tom would feel sad as he went through a reat deal of effort and difficulty to gather that amount of cheese.


Analysing from Jerry's perspective: Jerry feels that he went through a lot of suffering trying to get the cheese from Tom and that since they are such good friends, the best in the world, they should help each other out naturally. Why is Tom so reluctant to let go of the cheese? Why does Tom make it so hard for Jerry to get the cheese? After all, each of them worked hard to gather their cheese and it is all for their shared survival. So why is Tom so reluctant. After all, after getting Tom's cheese, Jerry was going to use it to exchange for more and better cheese from his friends.
Furthermore, Jerry did not purposely leave the cheese out in the open for others to steal, he ensured no one was around the area before leaving it there and he felt he was unluckily that the cheese got stolen.


If you ask Tom what he wants, Tom says he feels that his contribution was neglected and taken for granted. He just wants to Jerry to show some form of appreciation and regret for his lack of foresight and losing the cheese that Tom spent so much effort collecting. Tom just wants to hear 'thanks' and 'sorry'.

If you ask Jerry, Jerry feels that he shouldn't be blamed, he had good intentions in mind and it was just his luck. He at the same time is also deeply saddened and disappointed with the loss of the cheese in his hands. He feels that Tom shouldn't blame him for the loss. And Tom as his good friend should comfort him. Thus whenever Tom talks about this issue and mentions the cheese, Jerry gets very upset. Moreover, Tom says he gave the cheese to Jerry, but Jerry feels he earned it from Tom through much hard persuasion. And is quite saddened by Tom's attitude after their many years of friendship.


Well, that is the story of Tom and Jerry and the cheese. What can you draw from the story? Well for me, I learnt that when you say you give something, give willingly and do not take that to be yours again after it has changed hands. I learnt that appreciation is important and to apologise is important.

To always hear from the other party. What happens, the facts are not the truth. The truth to a person is his perception of things. To Tom, his giving the cheese is the truth. To Jerry, he struggled to get the cheese is the truth. So what is the truth? Can we say who is right and wrong? From the facts, both are right.

To always put down your ego and help each other out. To always say explicitly what you want from the other party. Tom never told Jerry what he wanted. And even if he did, Jerry never heard. Vice-versa, Jerry never told Tom what he wanted from him and Tom would not have heard too, being too concerned with his own well-being and damaged heart through the loss. So to end in the 2 good friends parting ways, is it really very hard to fanthom why? It just takes some listening, some true giving and some understanding.

Most importantly I feel, it takes putting down a person's I, My, Me. The person's big ego. The ego was the thing clouding their judgements. That's why in the end, I always turn to the Buddhist teachings which teach the method to take away one's ego from the equation and have a more harmonious, understanding world, and to have less sufferings. I believe, this is the way to living a better, happier and more fulfilling life for oneself and those around oneself.

What is sad? What is happy?

An ancient once said,"What is sad? What is happy?"

Today sad, tomorrow happy. Nothing more than a passing thought or emotion. If you think you are sad, and thinking, you continue to be sad. No thinking, no sad. Important thing is to break the train of thought.

More important than that, an ancient once said, "Not to be attached to anything which arises in the mind."

Today got great attachment to this. Tomorrow asking where did the great attachment go. Today this tomorrow that. Let go of all attachments and the world becomes clear again.

Sadness is good Dharma. It is where the Buddha first started his teaching.

Noble 8 Fold Path from Cattarisaka Sutta

Today, I went for the class on the Noble 8 Fold Path by Bro Piya and came back really happy. All my life i have been a Buddhist, and have studied and heard of the 8 Fold Path many times. But today, Bro Piya taught from the sutta directly, the Cattaridaka Sitta(Discourse on the Great Forty).

It is very interesting, a new way of learning and using that brings a new dimension. It is a sutra that the Buddha started talking without being asked a qustion. It is VERY systematic so I'll try to summarise its structure here. But if you want to know the defination, please look up the sutta.

First, the Buddha told the monks that He'll teach them Noble Right Concentration and its supports and requisites today...

And how does one get Right Noble Concentration?
Through the cultivation of the 7 Noble Right Paths which are the supports and requisites that He was talking abt just now.

So, He started by telling them and defining first what is Right View, then Right Intention, then Right Speech, then Right Action and finally Right Livelihood.

And in each of this 5 paths path, He would explain two ways of practicing the path.

1. The Right _____ with mental influxes, partaking of merit and ripening in acquisistions(of aggregates).

2. The Right _____ which is Noble without mental influxes, supramundane , a path factor.

The first is the mudane, normal day, normal guy method of the path. The next is the high level, high class method of the path.

Next, at the end of every path, he would say,

"One who makes an effort to give up _______(give up this particular wrong path) to cultivate the __________(cultivate the particular right path), this is one's right effort"

and

"One who is mindful gives up _______(give up this particular wrong path) to dwell cultivating __________(cultivate the particular right path), this is one's right mindfulness"

then He would basically say that:

Right View with Right Effort with Right Mindfulness is the way to cultivate this particular Right Path.

So this way of speaking is repeated 5 times for Right View, Right Intention, Right Speech, Right Action and Right Livelihood.

Finally, after cultivating all these 7 Right Paths, one gets Right Concentration.

And, next, get Right Concentration to do what?
To cultivate Right Knowledge and Right Liberation then gain Arahanthood.

There, the 10 Rightness is completed. *Bow*_(|)_

It is really Sadhu Sadhu Sadhu!! Excellent!!! Everything is explained systematically and clearly.

But do you get what I mean? If you don't ask me next time or google the sutta yourself.


The other interesting thing is that in the Right Livelihood, I usually only learn of only Right occupation/job. Which is not to engage in jobs which violates the 5 precepts or cause them to be violated eg.dealing in arms, in beings, in meat, in intoxicants and poisons. However, in the sutra there is more, not to engage in

1. Deceitful pretensions(to attainments),
2. Flattery(for gain),
3. Subtle insinuation or hinting (for gain),
4. Pressuring (for offerings), and
5. Pursuing gain for gain.

However, this applies more to the monastics. But it is really interesting, because I do 2,3,4 and 5 all the time while scheming of ways to obtain things. So it is really an eye opener today. Really interesting. Thanks Bro. Piya!! Sadhu Sadhu Sadhu!

Ritual 2

Well, after writing about the post about rituals the night before, while I was offering the incense this morning, I fell into a common error. I call it using your brain to offer. You see, I was thinking too much abt the offering, thinking too much abt the perfect offering according to what i wrote. Using thinking to generate the offering mind. In fact, it should not be this way.

While doing my evening chanting just now, I observed again and found that there is a method that I use. The feeling of offering is generated just before the offering and it is not the thought or idea of offering. It is a feeling which arises not from the head but from the heart. If you have any experience of meditation on feelings, you will get what i mean. So you generate a feeling, have a feeling, let it flow and flood through you, and then do the offering or chanting or dedication of merits. That is how it could be done. However, once you are familiar with the process, the generation of feeling part can be completed in a shorter period of time. Some also use the first few lines or moments in the chant to generate the feeling. The important thing here is the feeling of offering, of giving. The chant or ritual/action may be meaningless to you intellectually, but because of the feelings invested, it is meaningful. That is how it should be. At least as far as i know or my level of practice is concerned. So a ritual is actually a very personal thing and very feeling based thing and not an intellectual, mind thing. So the best is not to try to understand it from that way. Try to feel the ritual, not understand it intellectually. That is why rituals is an integral part of esoteric Buddhism. My master explains that esoteric means inside, deep, feelings, not surface and intellectual. Esoteric touches the heart of things, and comes from the heart.

Sorry if it is confusing. I know that in the first post, I keep talking about the mind. But this is the problem with a chinese translation into english. The word 心 in chinese is used which is usually translates into mind. However, it actually encompasses heart and mind. So when I speak of mind, it is not intellectual mind. It is heart mind, body mind but not intellectual thinking mind. Intellectual mind is not useful most of the time when pursuing religion.

Rituals

The 100th post will be on rituals. I just came back from a Homa service. It is basically an intense fire ritual said to be able to purify our minds bring us good fortune.

I have been thinking why I like rituals so much...Well....I think it all started from the day when at NTU's Dharma camp, when we wanted to present a gift to the Venerable at Palelai Temple, the Venerable said that this gift should not be a gift to me because I have preached the Dharma(not the exact words but the meaning is the same). The Dharma is priceless. And it should not be a gift to me. When you present it, present it to the whole sangha community. Think of it in such a way. Also, when the person is presenting it to me, do not think that HE is presenting it to me. Partake in this offering and view it as we are also presenting it to him together with the representative.

This forms the backbone of rituals. It is a bit of mudita, sympathetic joy, but more than that even. In rituals, if there is someone performing the ritual, study and know its significance yourself and you should view that you and the person performing the ritual are not separate from him or her, when the person is moving, you are moving(while not literally moving),watch the person closely, when the person is chanting, you are in concentration, perfectly in union with the person performing the ritual. Whatever the person does, you partake in it. YOU ARE IT! Mind, body and heart. That is how a participant should be in a ritual. Being one, your merit is limitless.

If you are the one doing the ritual, there must be full concentration on the action. In a wave of the hand, there is only a wave, the whole body and mind is waving. In the forming of a mudra, there is the mind body and heart all in it, not separate. The concept of union and separate does not even exist at that time of doing. Nothing at all, just that. Intention, movement and all in unison. With the chanting of the mantra, the mind has nothing, just the mantra. One way of chanting is to hear the pure words. The other is to summon out the pure intention. It is so with rituals too....

In rituals, the mind is in complete movement/stillness.. The hands move but it never actually did. There is just it...or for some, the projection, with all your mind and heart and action and speech. There is just that, the demonstration.

That is how rituals are done and should be partaken in from what I know. It is only through true participation in a ritual that one can gain the benefits of it. It is indeed sad that many of the Buddhists these days do not see or think much of ritual and undermine its use.

If it is still unclear, I shall describe the example of the offering of incense. In offering the incense, we take the incense in our hand, with one stroke right to the end, light it with the flame, looking at the flame. Then look at the red burning part, with another swift stroke right to the end, flick the fire off. Form the incense offering mudra and with the pure heart of offering, raise the mudra to the point between your eyebrows and place the incense in the burner. The ritual is complete. Nothing more, nothing less. The form may vary but the heart and mind and the cleanness of the stroke are the essentials.

The movements reflect the mind.
So movement is none other than mind.
And the mind is the ritual.
That is all. After the ritual is done, it is done.